Luxury wristwatches are typically sold in boxes which protect them during transportation, display and demonstration at point-of-sale. After the sale, however, consumers rarely if at all use such boxes for protection during daily use of the watches because the boxes are bulky and inconvenient. There are also some other after-market watch boxes. For example, there are specialist watch boxes which keep ‘winding’ watches when not being worn, or numerous leather box solutions with a separate removal watch cushion, or box solutions with a hole to insert the watch with no cushion. Each of these bulky or inflexible box solutions has limitations for the everyday owner of perhaps one or two luxury watches. After the sale, the watches, when not worn, are most commonly placed e.g. in the pocket or a handbag, or on desk top or in drawers without any protection. Often, for example during physical activities, a person needs to place her watch in a pocket of her garment, or a purse, which may also contain metal objects such as keys and coins and other sharp items, also without protection. The watches then suffer from appearance deterioration for example by micro-scratching of the outer surface. For luxury watches made of soft precious metals like gold, this problem is exasperated. As a result, the value of the watches decrease, and costly surface rehabilitation is needed after a period of use. The intrinsic value of the watch is also reduced over time for the owner as they become more and more used to storing their watches alongside less valuable items each day and night.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,264 discloses a protective overlay made of a disc of transparent high static vinyl that could be non-adhesively stuck on a wristwatch crystal to prevent scratching or chipping. Such films have also been applied to protect the rear face of watchcases. This however does not offer any protection for the watchcase sides or the bracelet. Further, such protective films are removed by the customer and cannot be re-used.
Various methods are known for packaging products under plastic, e.g. “clamshell” packing, stretch-packing method, and vacuum packing. For example, U.S. Pat. App. No. 20070223315 discloses a method for intimately wrapping the wristwatch in a close-fitting transparent protective film over a skin-wrapped plastics material. These methods, however, are not suitable for protection of the wristwatches after the point of sale to a retail customer.
There is therefore a need for a device and a method for protecting wristwatches by individual users against deterioration of their surface by scratching or otherwise when the wristwatch is not worn.